America's 100 Most Trustworthy Companies

Jacquelyn Smith
,
Forbes Staff
If it has to do with leadership, jobs, or careers, I'm on it.

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To qualify for the roster, the 100 companies all had to have market caps of $250 million or more at the time GMI prepared the list (March 7, 2013). Over the last four quarters the companies must have maintained AGR ratings of “conservative” or “average,” and had no amended filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, no SEC enforcement actions, and no material restatements. They also had to rank high in GMI’s Equity Risk Ranking, which indicates a positive forecast for equity returns, and have minimal likelihood of financial distress as measured by GMI’s Bankruptcy Risk model.

“There are two unique factors to this list,” Kaplan says. “First of all, it is compiled using a different set of tools. AGR uses governance and forensic accounting measures that are rarely incorporated in traditional analysis. These extra-financial measures are, in our view, an important factor in trying to understand value. Secondly, to our knowledge there are no other lists that focus on the trustworthiness of a business. There are many lists that focus on other attributes.”

Here says there is a great deal of evidence to support the fact that “the cost of capital for the most trustworthy companies is lower because their level of transparency is recognized in the marketplace.”

He continues: “Also, we have found evidence that, on balance, the most trustworthy companies outperform their peers over the long term. Of course the greatest benefit to a well-managed company is that their risk of negative events is minimized.”